HeartShadows

Summary: Daisy's busy with her first heartbreak, her stalker, & her best friend's anorexia. Enter Hades the brilliant. beautiful, & best thing she's ever known. Will her past keep her blind to her future?

Chapter 1

We’ve been driving for hours, mostly on unmarked roads. Not that I mind. Ireland is as beautiful and magical as I’d hoped. The perfect birthplace for the perfect boy on my right.

The wind makes his shining black curls bob and corkscrew like party streamers but he never brushes them away from his face. The black of his hair is echoed in an impossibly darker shade on his stomach and upper thighs. It starts as a scattering of hairs on his swimmer’s belly and becomes thicker as it travels down and over his taught thighs. In the light, made shimmery by the air’s heavy moisture, it’s easy to forget that he’s as human as I am.

“Where are we going?”

Caleb turns to stare at me and my stomach does this crazy rolling thing. It’s been six months and still, every time he looks at me, a nervous shock short-circuits my cell functions. I lean across the seat, pressing my face into his shoulder to hide how awestruck I feel. I inhale deeply and drown in the rich smell of him; fresh oranges, sun-kissed wheat fields, and the sweet-salty aroma that comes from him just breathing. Dizzy, spinning, intoxicated, that’s how I feel. Far from myself and falling even further away than that.

Caleb.

“I told you, swimming.”

“That’s a what, not a where.” I start smiling, faking a security that I’m not even close to feeling. Inside, I scramble to believe in this new reality. Trying hard to accept that he really chose me. That in spite of everything, after all is said and done, Caleb is mine.

“Look around, can’t you tell me where we are?”

“It’s really real!”

I leap out of the car, not caring that I land in ankle-deep water. In a few quick steps I’m immersed in paradise. All around me is the sort of perfection that you can’t paint because its magic won’t translate onto the canvas—people call this sort of thing sentimental.

Piercingly green hills rolling downward and disappearing into a white and gray beach. The sugary sand taking over the world, never stopping, simply disappearing beneath the more powerful ocean. Overhead, pregnant clouds push this world into a tight circle. Connecting all of this fantasy to reality, are dozens of magnificent, white cows—all contentedly munching the greenery.

“It’s just like you said.” I turn back toward Caleb. For the first time, my heart and my smile feel easy and light.

Caleb pulls my long braids forward, wrapping them around his fist, drawing me to him. The rainbow streaks that I’ve added to my jet black hair look like living jewels against his skin.

“A rúnsearc,” he breathes the words against my lips, “I’ve never lied to you.”

Already my tears are salting the kiss, making it feel like it’s the very last. Still, he leans down toward me, waiting for me to lift my face, to show him that I want this.

“You never lied,” I agree. “But you didn’t tell me the truth, either.”

snowview03:
This is the first book I have read on this app and I loved it! When I read the title I thought about the hunger games, but this novel is so much more. Some book have a comparison between other books that fallow like premises so i will do my own: Arena has the compellingly emotional stresses and t...

KerryMI:
One would think the idea of vampire loving man has been over flogged, yet this story's fresh perspective on Vampires, how they live and how they connect with humans is so effortlessly narrated that it almost becomes truth. Your writing was fast enough to keep me greedily turning each page but slo...

Sonali Srivastava:
It is very Fancinating to read a story full of Fantasy and specially when love is not complete as story , I really like the Imagination of Author and his writing skill, u dictated everything so beautifuly that when I read it I lost in the story and I hope I will read soon the second year of Zakir...

Drew C. Elyon:
I've only read one chapter so far, but from what I've seen, this is steampunk at its best. The narrative flows so beautifully I could envision every scene in an almost cinematic fashion. I believe in the complexity of simplicity, and this story has that in its descriptions.

N_F_G:
This story was fantastic! It was really enjoyable, and the characters and locations felt real to me as I read the story! Celeste was an amazing character, who survived all her struggles, and I felt the author did an excellent job writing about suicide and self harm- in a sensitive, authentic mann...

William Elliott Kern:
Long story, the plot uncovered midway through the story. From beginning, the story was fast moving. Then dragged on for quite some time. The Author was good in describing her characters, their clothing, etc. but a lot of that disclosure distracted from the story moving fast.Not withstanding, the...

Nanasha:
I thought I'd written a comment on this story, but for some reason, I guess it didn't go through. Anyway, so this story is intensely addictive. I liked how the author uses established mythology but then gives it a unique twist. The idea of goblins all coming from the head of the king is an ama...

uccowade:
im not quite done....200 pages left. very well written. my only criticism would be the minor spelling, grammar and structure errors. needs more polishing....regardless I was able determine how word or sentences were likely intended to be written. errors we're relatively minor in frequency and...

Ro-Ange Olson:
This is such a different romance story. I loved it. The book was very long and could be split into 2-3 books in my opinion, but I'd hate to have to wait to read the next part too. I loved the chapter from Darius's point of view. It was a really different way for the writer to cover time and also ...

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